Notes / Commercial Description:
This bold and deliciously complex beer is an Imperial Buckwheat Stout aged in Tequila barrels for 13 months. Only a collection of pioneering, well seasoned, extensively traveled and passionate pub owners could come up with such a notion. A massive grain bill consisting of Pale, Munich and toasted Canadian Buckwheat was blended with pearled drum-kilned barley from Chile, a generous amount of Wisconsin toasted wheat and a slug of British crystal malts. A couple lumps of Mexican Turbinado sugar were added for good measure while we loaded the kettle with Styrian Golding hops. This carefully calculated collision of flavors, concocted over copious amounts of Orval well into the night, was laid down in fresh Tequila barrels wrangled over our southern border by the beautiful and gracious Meg Gill. We simply call this beer “PNC” in honor of its collaborative creators – the gothic symphony of flavors will speak for themselves.

Many thanks to anotherjoe for surprising me with a bottle of this. Pours black in color with a rich brown cap. The aroma contains cocoa and lots of barrel with slight mineral feel. Plenty of oak and solvent alcohol blend to almost something like raisons. The solvent alcohol feel carries over from nose to flavor with plenty of roasty char appeal as well as fruity chocolate covered raisons. The barrel aging imparts oak and vanilla with some herbal hops being the last things noted. This is a very full and creamy feeling body with moderate carbonation. I cannot think of a tequilla barrel aged beer that I have enjoyed more than this. Well done.

T/M: Huge vanillins right up front and they just last and last. A really rich, sweet, beautiful beer. I get barely (if any) tequila at all. Maybe barrel-aging? My tequila-hating friend Adam swears he can taste it right at the end, and I do suppose there's a tang right at the end. It's mostly just a big sweet stout. I don't taste the booze but my buddy,

Well to start out, I am surprised to see this classified as an American double stout. I would have guessed it was gonna be classified as a wheatwine, but whaddo I know.

For a double stout, it sure is light and 'not black' looking. It was a reddish brown from where I was standing, but hey, I was a few beers in already at the time I savored this at the FW Invitational. The head was thin and beige.

Aroma was similar to the Melange 3/Bruery Anniversary beers in that it was full of a toffee and barrel sweetness like an alcoholic box of Cracker Jacks. I liked the aroma of Mikkeller's Tequila barrel black hole, and this one is no different. Throw in some coconut and vanilla in the aroma to round it out. Complex.

Taste drinks frighteningly smooth and is easy to drink for something so strong. Tasted nowhere near that type of abv. Oak is pleasant. Mild cocao contribution to the smoothness and just enough sweetness to counteract any bitterness. A mellow ride, man.